Community Corner: Chico based Orphan Care International tackling problems a world away

CHICO &GT;&GT; Every day Joel wandered the streets of Mazabuka, Zambia, begging for money and food. At 9, Joel was responsible for feeding himself and the rest of the family living at his aunt's house. If he didn't meet his responsibility, the consequences were brutal. He was beaten so severely he'd been blinded in one eye.

Though Joel was not HIV positive both, his parents died from AIDS, leaving him one among 800,000 HIV/AIDS affected orphans living in Zambia.

On the streets Joel heard about a place where orphaned and abused children could find a home. One day, he left his aunt's house and instead of wandering the streets in search of food, he walked four miles arriving on the door step of Docsek Children's Home with one question, "May I live here?"

"We took him in. He's 16 now and a very talented artist," said Sherry Holbrook of Chico, founder of Orphan Care International.

The beginning

In 2005 Holbrook formed the nonprofit committed to helping HIV/AIDS affected orphans in Zambia. The charitable group immediately started an orphanage, partnering with a local teacher and minister, Shern Kaumba, and his wife Tabitha. A small three-bedroom house was rented and filled almost immediately with 23 orphans.

In 2006, construction for a permanent home began and in 2012 the Docsek Children's Home in Mazabuka, Zambia was completed. The home houses 104 boys and girls, infant through 18-year-old children. The facility is full.

In addition to the importance of having the orphanage operated by people from the Mazabuka community, it is also critical that it be financially self-sufficient, said Holbrook.

To that end, Orphan Care International has funded and assisted the Docsek home in setting up three businesses: an Internet caf?, a poultry meat farm and a small produce farm. A fourth business, concrete block making, will be up and running soon.

"The home has to be self-sustaining. That's my goal. I think that it's important for them not to be supported by us forever, but to be able to get out on their own," said Holbrook.

Disease and extreme poverty

Despite a 26-year education and prevention campaign, Zambia's HIV/AIDS population is one of the largest in the world. More than one in every seven adults in the country is living with HIV. In 2011, nearly 42,000 adults and 9,500 children were newly infected with HIV, an average of 115 new infections daily.

The combination of the disease and extreme poverty ends lives and destroys families.

Holbrook first met Frank on the streets of Mazabuka. He looked to be about 9 months old and had yellow hair, a sign of malnourishment. The boy carrying him was his cousin. Both were from a family so devastated by AIDS that they, along with about 12 other children, had lost their parents and were living with their grandmother.

The cousin was carrying Frank to meet their grandmother who was scrounging food from the dirt after the market closed for the day. He told Holbrook she had chosen Frank as the child who would not be fed.

"Frank was dying. We could see it. This is what happens, though. Grandparents are left to see their children die and then to raise their children's children. The decisions they have to make are unimaginable," said Holbrook.

Holbrook told the boy about the orphanage. She encouraged him to tell his grandmother and to have her bring Frank there.

"The grandmother did bring Frank to us. That's when we learned he was 2 (years), not 9 months. We weren't even sure he would make it through the night," she said.

Frank not only made it through that night seven years ago, he's been thriving ever since, growing into a "totally healthy, happy, robust little boy," said Holbrook.

But not all families are willing to release orphans to homes. Even though the children are one more mouth to feed they are also a potential source of income.

In a heartbreaking story, Holbrook speaks of a 4-year-old boy who was "being sold to men in bars for sex." She "begged" the family regularly for two years to let her take the child to the orphanage. They refused. He was their best source of income. He was dead at 6.

"It's devastating the decisions these people have to, are forced to make just to survive, literally survive. I never judge them. I just pray," Holbrook said.

As the Docsek Home progresses toward independence, Holbrook has partnered with Loti and Teza Nyimibili to establish a second orphanage in Ndola, 250 miles from Zambia's capital city Lusaka.

The new orphanage houses 16 boys in a rented three-bedroom home. Holbrook assisted the Nyimibilis in opening a small grocery store which covers school, medical and household costs. Holbrook pays the rent.

A second home

With the new orphanage bursting at the seams the day it opened, Holbrook is working to bring in money for a new facility.

"This one will be a smaller, somewhere around 30 kids. We're not going to build this time. Instead, it's going to be better to buy an existing building. Based on my figures of what that will cost, we have about a third of the money," she said.

Orphan Care International's funding comes from private donations, fundraisers and Holbrook's bank account. She, her husband Gary, owner of Holbrook's Clearance Center, and two others make up the board of directors. There are no other volunteers. It is Holbrook who is the driving force behind the nonprofit's success.

"I'm at a place – I'm 65 years old – where I can't keep doing the majority of everything. I have to start getting things wrapped up," she said.

Holbrook's commitment to Zambia's orphans remains strong and she has, as she said, created a "relatively small but successful" nonprofit. Her goal is to find and hire someone who will "get the vision and has the heart to come in and market and build Orphan Care International so it stands on its own." Since "every penny" the nonprofit receives is sent to the orphanages, Holbrook will personally fund the salary.

"I'm not sure what will happen but at least I'll have the satisfaction of having built two homes," she said.

What it is: Orphan Care International is a charitable organization based in Chico committed to helping orphans and needy children around the world by providing for their physical, mental and spiritual needs.